More Canadian Crime Stoppers chapters pause program after CBC investigation | Hanomansing Tonight

Well, for more on this, let's bring in Gary Clement, a former RCMP superintendent, and he is in Ottawa. Gary, I can't remember the number of times I've worked on a story where police officers have said, if anybody's got any tips, they can get in touch with Crime Stoppers. Those tips are absolutely anonymous. So I just wonder, for you as a longtime police officer and supervisor, what's your reaction to this story? Well, first of all, I guess I would have to say extreme disappointment in Navigant 360 for the length of time it appears they took to get a hold of Crime Stoppers in Canada. It is unfortunate. Crime Stoppers has been a mainstay for policing for decades, and it has been extremely beneficial for the public because there's individuals that obviously do not want to have their name used or anything involving crimes. So it's one of those tools, and as you know, law enforcement doesn't have a lot of great tools anymore, but this is one of those tools that can be extremely beneficial. So it's disheartening to hear it. I think we'll overcome it, but confidence in the system, definitely Crime Stoppers and Navigant are going to have to demonstrate a lot of confidence. Is it overstating it to say that this breach, this data breach, might be putting some of those tipsters in danger? Well, it had, and I think it was summed up well by the individual out of Toronto that said they don't know exactly what was leaked. They haven't been told by Navigant. But definitely my experience with using Crimestoppers, for the most part, it's, you know, they try and keep individuals' names out of it. But some of these individuals that pass on information, they're so close to the criminal activity that it's fairly easy to identify who that individual is. So I would hope if there is anything that may cause some angst with some of those people, they did provide information that a threat risk assessment takes place. And that only should rely with Navigant and a notification of each of the Crime Stopper bureaus. Give me a sense of what it's like to be on the other side of those Crimestopper tips. An example, maybe generally speaking, of where that tip has helped you in an investigation. Well, we've received information before where, say in a city, and I'll use Ottawa as an example, where I ran the integrated proceeds of crime here. And we, you know, we came out with a number of cases over the years and all of a sudden we were getting Crimestopper tips that allowed us to enhance the investigation as far as who some of the criminals were, who they were connected to. And we wouldn't have got that if through any other means other than Crimestoppers. It often happens with, you know, especially in the area of drug trafficking or human trafficking. We will get people, Crime Stoppers gets lots of individuals on that or individuals that are involved in armed robbery. So some of them are pretty serious crimes. So you've been a senior police officer with the RCMP, with a municipal police service. How do you think police services can rebuild credibility with tipsters here? What needs to be done? Well, I think we have put it into perspective. I mean, we read about systems being hacked every day. I think it's disappointing that, and I can't speak because I don't know the full circumstances of P3, which is a system they're using, but I would have hoped Navigant would have been beefing it up because we do know that the hackers are becoming far more sophisticated and able to hack these systems. So if they hadn't been beefing it up, then the fault lies with them and shame on them. I would hope we can go out and the law enforcement is able to go through Crimestoppers and demonstrate that they've got an enhanced system that, to the degree possible, and nothing is 100% non-hackable today, but some systems are extremely weak. And I think people, especially with systems, rely on their laurels and it's always worked and just have not maintained the level that is required in today's environment. I always like your insights on police. And Gary, thank you very much for speaking with us. Thanks, Ian. Have a good evening. Gary Clement, former RCMP superintendent.